1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultraviolet laser sterilization system, especially to an ultraviolet laser light scanner for generating and receiving ultraviolet laser light having a wavelength of 266 nm. The system takes advantage of laser collimation as well as ultraviolet-C (UV-C) sterilization for effectively achieving the efficacy of comprehensive sterilization and disinfection rapidly and flawlessly.
2. Description of Related Art
There are ubiquitous microorganisms in the living environment, e.g. air, utensils and hands. Therefore, when conducting microbiological experiments in a laboratory or hospital, researchers should make all demanded utensils used in experiments to stay in a sterile state so as not to affect the experiments and the results thereof. A sterilization technology is a process on the premise of keeping the nature of matter to destroy all microorganisms, e.g. all bacteria, spores, viruses, fungi and so on, by means of physical or chemical methods. Accordingly, a sterilization technology can effectively be used to control or inhibit the growth of a particular microorganism.
Nowadays, sterilization technologies are primarily classified into contact and non-contact types according to their uses. Contact type sterilization techniques include alcohol disinfection and chlorination methods. The alcohol disinfection method is conducted by use of alcohol with a concentration ranging from 70% to 75% or by wiping sterilization cotton moistened with alcohol across the objects. Alcohols have characteristics of being able to penetrate through the cell membrane of microorganisms and causing the internal cytoplasm to lose its metabolic functions due to complete solidification, so that the alcohol disinfection method can achieve the efficacy of sterilization. Up to now, many places, e.g. public transport, restaurants, and other public places, still take advantage of the traditional alcohol disinfection method for sterilization purposes. Although such a method has an ability of rapid sterilization without leaving pigmentation on a target object, many disadvantages still exist in the method, i.e. incomplete sterilization in some areas, reduced disinfection efficacy due to change of alcohol concentration resulting from the volatility of alcohol, time-consuming and high labor costs. The other contact sterilization technique, chlorination method, is also one of the methods commonly used in our daily life. However, recent studies have shown that chlorination is easy to make chlorine and organic reaction in the water and thus generates harmful carcinogens. Moreover, chlorine compounds are also easy to cause injury to people in use of the chlorination method for sterilization and there will be remaining chlorine left on the surface of facilities to cause surface corrosion and damage.
Non-contact sterilization techniques include ozone sterilization methods and UV-C sterilization methods. Ozone is a highly efficient, fast, and secure germicide without causing repeated pollutions. At a normal temperature and pressure, it is a pale blue gas accompanied by a natural fresh taste for not only destroying bacterial spores, viruses, fungi, botulism, Fusarium, Penicillium, Bacillus subtilis, natural bacteria, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, or the like, but also killing hepatitis A and hepatitis B viruses. However, due to the complexity of designing an ozone equipment, high designing and manufacturing cost is the main disadvantage in this method.
Currently, UV-C sterilization method is the safest and most reliable for rapid, complete and lowest hazardous sterilization without causing repeated pollutions. UV-C is now widely used in various fields, for example, UV lamp applications in medicine, is the best way to disinfection and sterilization of infectious viruses. UV lamps are conducted by sterilizing and disinfecting irradiated areas. However, limitation of UV irradiated areas is easy to cause unevenness UV brightness resulting in problems of incomplete disinfection and sterilization. Moreover, because most users think that the UV lamp will have disinfection effect as long as it has been lit, the recession problem of the UV light intensity has scarcely been valued by users. Besides, users generally determine the quality of UV lamps by the methods for assessing the quality of fluorescent lamp, i.e. assessing the light intensity of the lamp and ionization degree of the light by eyes. If the UV lamp without disinfection capability is continuously used by users, of course, it cannot effectively and thoroughly disinfect and sterilize the target object well. If people mistakenly believe that the object has been actually sterilized and further use it, it may lead to pathogenic phenomena such as infection and poisoning. In particular, the UV lamps are belong to emitted lights, so it must prohibit users from entering irradiated areas for fear of generating skin aging or cancerous lesion due to long-term exposure to UV light.